Indian Railways approves ₹201 Crore Kavach Project for Ambala Division of Northern Railway
New Delhi, June 15
In a major step towards strengthening railway safety, Indian Railways has approved the installation of Kavach on the balance Broad Gauge sections of the Ambala Division of Northern Railway.
The project covers 811 route kilometres and has been sanctioned at a cost of ₹201 crore. The work has been approved under the umbrella programme for the provision of Kavach with LTE-based communication backbone on balance routes of Indian Railways.
The sanctioned work will cover important rail routes in the Ambala Division, including Ambala Cantonment-Ludhiana, Kalka-Chandigarh-New Morinda-Sahnewal, Sirhind-Daulatpur Chowk, Rajpura-Bathinda-Shri Ganganagar and Ludhiana-Dhuri-Jakhal sections.
These routes serve as key rail corridors connecting the states of Haryana, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh. They handle substantial passenger and freight traffic and play an important role in the movement of people and goods across the region.
Kavach is an indigenously developed Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system designed to enhance operational safety. It helps prevent Signal Passing at Danger (SPAD), automatically applies brakes when required to avert unsafe situations, controls train speed in critical conditions, and significantly reduces the risk of collisions.
Indian Railways is progressively expanding Kavach across its network as part of its ongoing efforts to improve safety, reliability and capacity on high-density and strategically important routes.
Earlier, the Indian Railways decided to conduct fire safety audits at railway stations across the country to further strengthen safety and security. The initiative will assess existing fire safety systems and identify areas that require improvement to enhance the safety of passengers and protect railway assets.
The audit will cover all critical safety infrastructure, including station buildings, electrical installations, air-conditioning and ventilation systems, emergency exits, firefighting equipment, water availability, pumping arrangements, and sprinkler systems. The objective is to ensure that railway stations are fully prepared to respond effectively to emergencies, including fire incidents.
— ANI
Reader Comments
This is good but what about the rest of the country? Why only Ambala division? The entire network needs Kavach, especially the high-density routes in UP, Bihar and West Bengal where most accidents happen. Also, are they going to train the loco pilots properly? Our staff is already overworked. Technology alone won't solve the problem without proper training and maintenance.
Interesting to see indigenous tech taking off. I worked on similar systems in Australia and it's great that India is developing its own solution. But 811 km for ₹201 crore seems reasonable. Hope they also focus on cybersecurity aspects now that everything is becoming LTE-based. Good step overall!
As someone from Chandigarh who frequently travels to Delhi via Ambala, I'm happy to see this. The Kalka-Chandigarh section is scenic but also has some tricky curves. But why is fire safety audit mentioned separately? Shouldn't that be routine? Anyway, fingers crossed that this actually gets implemented before 2030! 🙏
Good initiative but I have a small concern. The article mentions it will cover Sirhind-Daulatpur Chowk and Rajpura-Bathinda sections. These are important wheat and cement transport routes. Will installation cause train cancellations or delays? The railways should plan it during low-traffic periods. Also, is there any plan to extend it to the Jammu route? That area also needs safety upgrades.
Finally some concrete news! I saw the Kavach
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